Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Admirable film.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

There are obvious problems with this movie. The sound is so bad at times that I had to put subtitles on to understand the dialogue. Some shots are horrifically exposed; the movement is poor, dirt on the print horrific and jump cuts regular. But this is over eighty years old. Quite good for the age. I don't think that they tried to shock and sicken with this film. They wanted to create a drama behind the scenes of a circus. It turns out to be a perfectly paced and brilliantly developed. There are few films that I can think of that take this kind of theme seriously. This is a fantastic and enjoyable horror drama. It is what you think that they will do that is scarier than what you see. It has a satisfying ending and good pace where you feel the relationships. I didn't notice the disabilities. Enjoyable but not something that you would watch often due to tone and technical.

This review is most of all a reaction to all those people who are reviewing this movie as a "horror" movie. Shame on you.I was completely not planning on writing a review on this movie. As so many have explained why they love this movie in a much better way than I ever could do. I must admit that I was heavily triggered when I read the reviews and saw many people describing this as a great "HORROR" movie!? My god did you even watch this movie? Did you even understand what the message was all about? It has been some years that I've watched this movie. And the best movie you can compare this movie with is "The Elephant Man". David Lynch was obviously very influenced by this picture. Both of the directors made a movie with meaning behind it, that was way more important than the movie itself.In my recollection the movie starts with a long message from the director about why he's making this movie. Back in the 30's it was still common' to go the circus and laugh at people who had it way worse then you. Ahead of his time Tod Browning was one of the first ever to make people question their views on what should be acceptable. Is it okay to dehumanize somebody just for the way he looks? He took his greatest gift and made a movie to honor this people. But not only honor them... No he made them back human. He did no effort what so ever in making them look better than they were. He portrayed them just the way they are, and made a story about friendship, love and sacrifice. And he succeeded. Nowadays nobody would even think about banning this movie. But because of the horrific images of the people (actors) who were in it, this movie was banned for 30 years in Great-Britain.This review is a homage to the man who dared to question society's accepted standards. And nowadays it's impossible to even believe that something that was so widespread would still exist today. By portraying this movie as "30's Horror movie", you are not much better than society back then.

"Dracula" director Tod Browning's horror movie "Freaks" might freak you out unless you're a connoisseur of either Browning or the genre. Based in title only on Tod Robbins' short story "Spurs," this memorable revenge melodrama takes place in a circus touring in Europe. When MGM made this creepy little chiller, they wanted to reap the whirlwind of wealth that Universal Studios had with "Dracula" and "Frankenstein." This horror movie doesn't concern supernatural creatures or people, but there are three genuinely deformed individuals. Browning didn't rely on prosthetics or camera tricks. The two most impressive of the 'freaks' is Prince Randian and Johnny Eck. Randian is designed as The Living Torso, while Eck is The Half-Boy. The Living Torso has neither arms nor legs, but he does have a normal size head. The Half-Boy uses his hands to walk around with because he has no legs or even a set of buttocks. The other 'Freaks' are three pinheads and a couple of armless women. The main one of the bunch is a German fellow named Hans (Harry Earles of "The Unholy Three") who is basically a pint-sized little guy who dresses himself in formal apparel. He has had a relationship with another circus performer, Frieda (Daisy Earles of "The Wizard of Oz"), but he breaks it off after he becomes infatuated with high-wire trapeze artist Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova of "A Dangerous Woman") who preys on him for his wealth. Eventually, Cleopatra makes a fool out of Hans when she marries him, but prefers to kill him so she can get her inheritance. Once they are man and wife, Cleopatra wages a campaign to poison Hans. Happily, Hans discovers her skulduggery before she can kill him. The sideshow circus carve her up and they go after her muscle-headed accomplice, Hercules, who wrestles bulls in the circus. Clocking in at a learn 63 minutes, this classic horror movie will live on in your conscious mind withhold holding up Zorro. When the film was released after extensive editing, "Freaks" flopped at the box office, but it qualifies as a surefire, gross-out classic that you won't forget.

This movie is really sad, like it shows the way people with different deformities were treated so badly. What was really shocking, was that the story goes that a dwarf man is in love with a beautiful French woman who is able bodied and is using the dwarf for his money. Even worse, she actually is getting jiggy with that world strongest man guy. Seriously, it is just seems so f*cked up and that does go to show how back then, the way they treated people with disabilities rotten. I have to say, although the ending was brutal, it was a good revenge plan at the same time. I mean, she was cruel and deceitful to Hans especially trying to kill him with poison. I suppose maybe that scene considered this as a dangerous movie or the fact, it had disabled people on it. This is my first time ever watching a 1930s film that showed people with different needs. I just wish this film was receiving credit, the actors were brilliant and I'm giving this an 8/10!